Redemption
by Burn Our History
Summary: An accidentally made sex tape is leaked to the student body at McKinley, and it rips Lauren and Puck's lives, and their relationship, apart.
1. Cameras Flashing, Lives Crashing

**Note:** I usually try to preface any new piece I do by saying with something. With this pairing, all I really can say is that I have wanted to write Luck for a long time, because I love everything about them, and hopefully I'll be able to do them justice because they are more than worth it.

Also, the only thing I own in regards to Lauren and Puck is my love for them. The characters themselves, and anything else pertaining to Glee, belongs to the shows creators. Thank you for the most awesome clay ever, gentlemen.

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><p><strong>Redemption<strong>

Chapter 1: Cameras Flashing, Lives Crashing

"Can you believe they _actually_ taped it?"

"Did you see it was posted on Facebook?"

"Someone needs to tell Puckerman that having sex with an endangered species of hippo is against the law."

They were all whispers. No one had the nerve to say it to his face.

All they could manage was to stare as he walked down the hallway, a few people even snickering.

_This is bullshit,_ thought Puck as he glared back at everyone, most people looking away, but continuing to talk once he passed.

It wasn't so much what they were saying about him. He didn't much care what they thought. What they said about her, though, made him want to start taking swings.

So she wasn't model perfect, and, yeah, it probably looked different. It had felt different when it was happening, and not because of size or shape. He had felt…something. Something that he really could not describe, because he sucked with words

Sex was sex, and he was good at it. It wasn't his style to leave a lady unsatisfied. This was more than that though. This…she…, had left him feeling completely unraveled.

He had always been able to separate himself from the other girls, and women, if he wanted to. Frankly, he just wasn't into a lot of the chicks he'd been with and the distance between them had gotten him what he wanted without having to actually invest in the person.

With her, he had felt…attached.

He didn't want to be lame and say it felt like the first time. He couldn't actually remember what the first time felt like anyway. He figured that volume, or quantity, or whatever people called it, would do that to a guy. Maybe, though, when he was with her, that's what it was suppose to feel like. Like what he always heard girls talk about.

Special.

Thinking of it that way had made him regret not pointing out that the camera was on.

He didn't know what Rachel had been up to before the party. Probably recording herself singing, so she could go back over it later and "find areas for improvement" in her performances. She was a little crazy like that, but in a way that made him like her. Whatever it was, he had noticed the red light on the top of the camera blinking as Lauren was pulled at his arm. He really didn't give it much thought because he really hadn't planned on having sex at that party.

Yeah, that's what parties were for, and he had been trying really hard to woo his way into Lauren's pants for almost a month. But for all the bluster, he didn't want it to go down that way. Not at some party, in his friend's bedroom, on her bed. Though he hadn't admitted itout loud, he felt like Lauren was better than that, and he was trying really hard to treat her like she was.

How it ended up on the Internet was beyond him. Stuff like that doesn't just happen. Video cameras do not magically put the stuff they record on the Internet. And he knew none of his friends would have put it on Facebook. If anything, Rachel would have seen three seconds of it, erased it, then talked his ear off about how appalled she what he did.

He had a feeling that explaining all that to Lauren was not going to make her think he was any less of a creep. She was still going to hate him. And that was going to suck because…

…he really liked her.

Yeah, she was tough on him. Tougher than was probably fair sometimes. It was always honest, though, and he knew that if he told her she was out of line, she'd stop doing it because she wasn't a mean person. She could even be kind of sweet in her own way. The week before, she had given him a plate of butterscotch cookies that she'd claimed were simply leftover from a batch her mom had made. He'd known it was a lie, that she'd made the cookies for him, but he just said, "Cool. Thanks," and let her retain some of that badass demeanor that had drawn him to her in the first place even though she was being a total girl.

He couldn't help but smile at the memory. At how cute she was, even though he knew she hated anyone seeing her that way.

As soon as he looked through the window on the choir room door, and saw the way everyone was looking at each other, then sneaking glances back at her, sitting in the back row, his insides lurched a bit.

Whenhe finally forced himself through the doorway_,_ , all eyes were on him. They all looked…kind of pissed? They hadn't even looked this mad when the baby drama had been blown wide open last year and almost ruined their chances at Sectionals. Sam and Artie were the only ones who looked they were not completely disgusted with him.

This was the hallway all over again. Only worse because he couldn't glare back at them. They were his friends and, as much as he didn't want to, he kind of cared that they all seemed to hate him at the moment.

Still, he wasn't about to back down from them. Especially when he hadn't actually done anything to any of them. "Gotta problem?" he snapped at the person nearest to him...Finn.

Finn glanced around at everyone, trying to find the encouragement to say what they all were thinking. "How could you, man?" he asked, his words less venomous than his look had been.

Puck rolled his eyes. "How could I what?"

"Oh please! You know what you did," piped up Mercedes, her voice more contemptuous than Finn's. "How could you be so selfish? How could you do…that to someone."

He looked up at Lauren, but she wasn't looking back. She hadn't since he walked in the room. Maybe he didn't deserve it, but he wanted her to step in and tell everyone to back off. That she could stand up for herself. Like she had told him the day Santana had gone after her for "stealing" him from her.

His eyes flicked over to Santana for a split second, checking out her reaction to all this. He wouldn't put posting this online past her. She was just that much of a bitch. But the smug look she usually got when she made someone's life miserable wasn't there. She looked like everyone else did, like she thought he was complete scum.

"Whatever," he growled as he shoved between Tina and Mike, nearly knocking both of them with his backpack, and sat down next to Lauren. "Look, let's get out of here and…talk about this."

When she finally looked up, he felt a cold shot up his spine. Her eyes were…calm. Deadly calm. This is probably what a serial killer looks like right before he cuts up his victim into a million pieces, he thought. And he definitely felt like one of those zebras on the discovery channel that's about to be pounced on by a cheetah.

She stood up without saying a word, slung her bag over her shoulder, and made her way to the door. He followed dumbly – down the hallway, through the gym, out the doors, and all the way to her car.

"Well?" she finally said, no hint of emotion in her voice.

"I didn't do this," he said a little too defensively, like he was talking to all of them back in the choir room, and not to her.

"So what, Puckerman? It just happened?" Her eyebrows flared up. This usually happened when she thought someone was lying.

"Well, yeah kind of.. I mean, us actually doing it just happened. I didn't plan to hook up with you at that party. Or on Rachel's bed or anything." He was rambling, and he felt like a jackass for it. He'd wanted to be confident because he figured it might make her believe that he wasn't just blowing smoke. That he actually hadn't done this. But now, he was starting to believe it was all his fault too.

Lauren wanted to slug him…because she knew he was right. That it had just happened, and if anything she was the one who started the only sex romp that had ever taken place in the Berry boudoir. But how was she suppose to know it was all being filmed? Making a sex tape was one thing. She wasn't entirely opposed to it, even if it was all kinds of Paris Hilton trashy. Being filmed without her permission was something else. It was like..being violated, and not in a fun way.

He should have known. He had to have. He had been in Rachel's room plenty of times, and rolled around on that bed with her once or twice. Lauren's teeth ground at the idea of him with anyone else, especially Rachel since he'd made out with her almost immediately after they'd shared the whole 7-minutes in heaven debacle. If Lauren was being honest with herself, having sex on Berry's bed was like fucked up payback, no matter how juvenile she knew it was. Rachel wasn't suppose to know about it, though. No one was. Especially not everyone in school.

"Tell me the truth," she finally said, after glaring at him while he shifted uncomfortably front of her for a few minutes. "Did you see the camera?"

He sighed, heavily. "Yes," he said, hating this whole honesty thing. "And..okay, I saw the light blinking on the top, and should have turned it off, but I swear…."

"Wait, you _knew_ the camera was _on_?"

"I didn't think we were going to have sex!"

"You should've said something!" she fumed. She was trying to hold back the tears. She never cried – it just wasn't her style especially not in front of someone she obviously couldn't trust.

"I'm sorry, alright. But I didn't put this thing on the internet…hey…"

She was already pushing her car door open and climbing in. When he grabbed for her arm, she almost took his fingers off slamming the door. "You better get out of my way, Puckerman, I'm going to run your ass over."

"Zizes, c'mon. Seriously. You have to believe I didn't do this. That I'd never hurt you on purpose.. I like you too much to do that."

She looked up at him, glasses sitting on the end of her nose. "Well aren't I lucky that a guy like you would ever like a girl like me enough to nail her on someone else's bed than post it all over the internet. Get bent, Puckerman. And while you're at it, lose my number."

Her blue G6 reared back hard, then ripped through the lot, hitting the street at full speed.

All he could do was watch, and feel like the complete fuck up that everyone thought he was. Scratch that… that she thought he was. No one else mattered as much as she did a thought that didn't make it any easier to go back into the building and face the looks that were somehow tolerable before.


	2. No One Hates Me More Than Me

**Redemption**

Chapter 2: No One Hates Me More Than Me

Rain pummeled the window. The sound of tiny droplets changing to icy pellets distracted Lauren from the open geometry book in front of her. What it couldn't distract her from was the blinking light on her phone. First, it'd been the beeping, then buzzing. Now that the sound was off, it was the damn light.

It was like being nagged by her mom to clean her room, which always looked like a tornado had blown through, or pestered by her two younger brothers, who seemed to be in a constant state of needing a ride somewhere. They were always on her. And with the light flashing, they were no longer in an exclusive club.

_Can't a girl have a moment's peace?_ she thought irritably, as she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and threw the phone in violently. She hadn't bothered checking the messages. They were probably all hate texts, or notifications to check Facebook or Twitter to see the hate swirling there.

Fat. Ugly. Beast. Pug-faced she-male. That would be the gist of all the messages.

She had heard it all before. And not just about herself. According to the football team, the hockey team, the lacrosse team, and pretty much any guy at McKinley High School with a pulse, there were a lot of fat, ugly bitches running around the school.

Lauren had long outgrown giving a fuck about the labels people slapped on each other just to make themselves feel better long ago. Unlike other girls she went to school with, who probably spent most of their time crying, or purging, or painting their nails black and writing bad emo poetry or cutting themselves because they would never be the pretty cheerleaders, or doe-eyed songbirds who ended up with the same a-holes that constantly made them feel like crap, Lauren actually liked herself.

No, she _loved_ herself.

Puckerman, on the other hand, was a different story.

Hate was probably too strong of a word, especially since from one minute to the next she went from having a hard time feeling it in earnest to feeling it so deeply that she had snapped 3 pencils in half without meaning to. But "angry" and "betrayed" weren't nearly strong enough words, even though she was feeling them whenever his face popped into her head.

She stared down at the desk drawer, wondering if any of the messages were from him.

"No," she said out loud. "You're not doing this. He's an asshole, who fucked with your feelings. You don't need him."

Especially if it was just a matter of having someone. There was a guy named Shane, who she had met at her father's restaurant weeks ago. He had started showing up there daily, obviously to see her, and he had been to two of her wrestling matches. He was tall, athletic. His label at McKinley would've been "perfect." If she wanted a boyfriend just to have one, he was the perfect choice.

But, as she'd told Puckerman before Valentine's Day, she wasn't desperate. And she wanted more than that. She wasn't about to date someone who wasn't all that interesting, and didn't get her sense of humor.

_You will, however, have meaningless sex with someone you actually cared about_, she thought as she closed her book, knowing a lost cause when she saw one.

This whole sex tape mess could have been avoided had she just stuck to her guns. No fooling around. No sex. She wasn't about to be just another notch in the Puckerman bed post, because she was better than that and she knew it. That's why she had laid down those rules when they started the whole dating thing.

That, and she kind of wanted him to prove that he would actually do it.

As confident as she was in herself, her faith in him had never been solid. She had tried not to judge him on the past. He'd had his reasons for sleeping around, and a lot them had nothing to do with being a 16-year old boy who just liked sticking his dick in anything that moved. She got that. But it would have been stupid for her to ignore that it happened, though, because no matter the reasons, it was part of who he was. It had broken his heart, time and time again, and it was how he ended up a teen dad being forced to give up his kid.

Lauren felt a pull in her chest. She always did when she thought about him talking to her about Beth. It had been a snow day, only the week before, and they had sat on a bench in the park, watching her brothers play hockey on the frozen pond. She wasn't sure why he had brought it up, but he suddenly started talking about seeing his daughter for the first time, then about her being in New York, and how Shelby would probably watch her ice skate in Central Park someday, just like they were watching Lauren's brothers. It was obvious how hurt he still was about losing her, and the misty look of his eyes made it obvious that he rarely talked about it. No amount of hurt feelings could take away how it'd felt when he'd trusted her enough to share it with her.

But no amount of that feeling could make her feel like he hadn't ruined everything by not telling her the damn camera was on.

A knock, followed by, "Lauren, honey, can I come in?" came from her bedroom door. She looked over her should, and sighed.

"Here it comes," she said to herself before shouting, "Enter!"

Her dad appeared in the doorway. He was built like a wrestler – tall, thick, arms like hams. But when it came to his little girl, he was a big ole teddy bear. That's why the look on his face was so…unsettling. When he crossed over to her bed, and sat down facing her, Lauren knew that this was probably going to be the hardest conversation they'd ever had.

"Your principal called."

_Yup, worst conversation ever. And it hasn't even started._ "Oh?" she replied simply.

"Yeah. He says you shouldn't come to school in tomorrow, but he wants me and mom to come in and have a chat with him. Something about you and…something that got posted on the internet."

"Did he tell you what it was?" she asked, stalling the inevitable.

"He didn't say exactly but…well, it sounds bad, Baby Girl. Do you know what it is?"

She sucked in a breath, and blew it out in a gust. "Yeah..it's…" Looking at him, the words "sex tape" got caught in her throat. How could she tell her dad that everyone had scene seen her having sex? He would be so disappointed in her. "Promise you'll still love me when I say this?"

His hand patted her round cheek, and for a brief second, his mustache flicked upwards, reflecting a small smile. "I could never stop loving you, sweetie."

A tear caught her off guard, rolling her cheek, tracing a dirty track around her father's thumb. "Oh, daddy. I was so stupid. I…had sex with Puck and it got taped somehow. Now it's on the internet."

She'd never seen the shade of red that her father's face turned. Nor had she seen his short hair bristle, like a stray cat ready to scrap. It was kind of terrifying, since he was the gentlest man she knew. His words, though, were strangely calm. "I'm going to kill him."

Her hand landed gently on his shoulder, her eyes wide, and scared. "He didn't do this, dad," she said in Puck's defense, even though she didn't know if it was the whole truth. "It was just a stupid mistake. We were just…at a party, being dumb. We didn't know it would…end up like this."

"He should have respected you more than that, Lauren."

She knew he was right, because she felt the same way, even if it was for completely different reasons. Puck should have respected her enough to turn off the damn camera, or to at least let her know it was on. Still, this crime took two to tango. Literally. "He didn't take advantage of me, dad. In fact…I was the one who wanted to have sex with him. So he didn't pressure me or anything."

The pained expression on her dad's face signaled that she needed to stop talking. He already knew more than he wanted to about the entire situation. And his precious little girl. She knew all he wanted was to go back to the days when his biggest concern was getting her pigtails even, or making sure she had a snack for her preschool class. He didn't want to deal with her sex life, or the fact that she even had one at 17. He most certainly did not want to deal with a sex tape on the internet, or the inevitable backlash of it.

She hadn't thought about it until now but people would criticize him, and her mom, as parents, because Lima was a small town full of a lot of closed minded people. The fact that they raised a respectful, straight A student, who was involved in after school activities, and went to church – the same one as Principal Figgins, no less – would be irrelevant. They would be crucified as the worst parents ever.

And for that, Lauren finally got a taste of what truly hating herself felt like.

She threw herself into his chest, where he cradled her. It was the only thing he could do for his baby…who wasn't such a baby anymore.


	3. Please Believe Me When I Say

**Redemption**

Chapter 3: Please Believe Me When I Say...

"Mom, I got a girl pregnant."

"Mom, I had sex at a party and the tape ended up on the Internet."

He couldn't tell which had been more horrifying to her, since she'd turned the same sick shade of green, and stooped a little, like she'd been punched in the gut, both times.

Even though he was her son, and he knew she loved him, Puck also knew that his mom thought he was a total fuck up. _Just like your father_, she'd said bitterly, over and over again during the time that Quinn had stayed with them the year before. He understood that she couldn't help it. She had been furious with him for "ruining his life," and she had to take it out on someone.

This time, though, she said nothing. Not a word.

And it made him feel like she was done with him. Like he had broken her heart one time too many and she just couldn't take it anymore.

Just like with his father.

But he couldn't _not_ tell her. Fuck up that he was, he couldn't let her walk into the meeting with Figgins blind. Especially since he knew Lauren's parents would know what went down. Unlike him, she had a father she could, and did, talk to. They probably wouldn't intentionally go after his mom, because they were better people than that, but it would eventually come down to her being a bad parent. The fact that she was doing it on her own, working 60 hours a week just to keep two kids fed, wasn't going to get her any sympathy either. So what he did, down to the smallest detail, had to be in her arsenal so she could at least defend herself, even if he really didn't expect her to defend him.

It wasn't like she'd be the only one who didn't.

As he stood in the outside doorway of the auto shop – a place where no one was going to bother or see him – he thought about all the people in that office – Principal Figgins, Lauren's parents, his probation officer, probably Mr. Schue and Miss Pillsbury – and knew that not one of them was about to jump to his defense. None of them was going to doubt that he did this, not even for a second. Because when bad stuff happened, it was always his fault. He had three volumes ins his permanent record to prove it.

He knew that he shouldn't feel sorry for himself, because some of that stuff he actually did, but the thought of it made him angry. Angry that no one noticed him, much less gave a damn, until he was in trouble. Or that when he was already in trouble, he was he the only one to blame because he was "a bad kid." No one really wanted to help him.

"What are you doing here, Puckerman?" came a voice, interrupting his thoughts. When he looked, he saw Sam Evans, his bleach blond mop looking as stupid as it ever did. "I thought you were expelled."

"What's it to you?" Puck snapped.

"Hey, man, I was just asking." Sam came up beside him, a little too close for Puck's comfort. Still, he seemed like an alright enough guy, even if he was kind a dork with a huge mouth who spoke made-up languages and did obnoxious Darth Vadar impressions.

"So what's the word?" Puck finally said.

It took Sam a minute, and a puzzled look, to catch his meaning. "The talk has died down a bit since the video got taken off the net. But everyone still thinks you did it. And most of the club is still pretty mad about it."

_Figures._ "Why are they all so pissed, dude? It's not like any of them is really friends with Lauren, so it's not like they're worried about her feelings or anything."

Sam shrugged. "I really couldn't tell you. But it seems like they think you don't care about anyone but yourself."

Puck gritted his teeth. More people, assuming the worst. "Yeah, well, they don't know me. And I didn't do this."

"I believe you," Sam said quietly.

He sounded like he was being honest. Puck half expected him to follow up what he said with a "Scout's Honor." Out of the corner of his eye, Puck caught the expression on Sam's face. It told the same story as his words. "Why? It's not like we're friends or anything."

"Because..who would put something like that out there for everyone to see?"

"Something like what?" Puck said, instantly defensive. He'd spent the whole day before listening to people say that, then say something harsh about Lauren, and her body. On his side or not, Puck wasn't about to let Sam get away with putting his girl down.

"I didn't mean anything by it." Sam shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "I know a lot of people are saying a lot of nasty things. But I'm not that kind of person. Who you like is who you like. I just meant I don't think anyone would do…that…with anyone, then put it on the internet on purpose."

Puck relaxed his clenched fists a bit, and let out a cold breath. Sam really was a Boy Scout and as much as Puck wanted to hate him at the moment, because he wanted to hate everyone, he couldn't. "Well, like I said, I didn't. So I need to figure out who did."

A sharp blare sounded behind them. "I should go. I have math this period," Sam said. He turned to walk away from Puck, but stopped short. "I know that dudes don't usually say stuff like this, and you'll probably think I'm a total puss for offering, but if you need anything, I'm around." He clapped his hand over Puck's shoulder for a second, and then retracted it before Puck could jerk away from him.

Normally, Sam was right. Puck would have called him a puss.

Now, though it almost felt like having something he hadn't had before…an ally. A friend.

* * *

><p>Puck was sitting at the kitchen table when his mom walked through the door. She didn't bother taking her coat off, which he knew was not a good sign.<p>

She was finally ready to talk, and as she looked down at him, hands on her hips, he was pretty sure that the silent treatment she had been giving him was going to seem like a picnic by comparison.

"Do you know what I just sat through?" she asked him.

He did, but he wasn't walking into that trap. The tone in her voice told him she wasn't really expecting an answer anyway. That all he was suppose to do was sit there and be quiet while she went off. When it was his turn to talk, she'd let him know.

"I just had to listen to your principal, your counselor, your _probation officer_, and your girlfriend's parents go on and on about how appalled they are that this had happened, and how they could not believe you would do something like this since you had been making so much progress since…" She still had trouble saying the words 'juvenile hall.' Just another shining example of how he had actively turned her hair grey early, or so she said. "…since the fall. You're lucky that your probation officer and your counselor worked it out that no charges would be brought against you, or that girl, for putting that stuff on the Internet."

"Charges? What charges could they bring?" he asked.

She slammed her hands down hard on the table, making him jump back like he had just tripped a landmine. Her already dark eyes were practically black. "Pornography, Noah! You could have been charged with possession of child pornography since you're both just children." She reared back, pulling her fingers threw her hair. To him, it looked like she was about to rip it out completely. "My son, the porn king of Lima. It's bad enough I can't walk into the grocery store without worrying about hearing someone my own age talking bring up sex with my son and now this! How could you be so stupid?" She looked down at him again. "HOW?"

That had been his cue, but he knew he had no answer that was going to make either of them feel any better. "I didn't do it," he offered, waiting for her to grab the skillet and clock him square in his head.

"No one believes that! Your counselor said that she feels your sleeping around, and doing things like this, is a product of your broken home and the fact that you desperately need attention." She started to pace, from the kitchen, into the living room and back. "And that girl's parents think that you are a despicable kid because you took advantage of their daughter. That I raised you to be this way. To be disrespectful of women."

That made him angry.

Yeah, he slept around. A lot. And he'd gotten Quinn pregnant after kind of tricking her into sex. He had apologized to her for that, though, and he had paid for it when he'd watched Shelby Corcoran hold his daughter in her arms, then take her away. He couldn't deny that he had been kind of douche in the past, and that he had done a lot of crappy things to a lot of girls..and women. But he had never disrespected anyone, especially not Lauren.

"Would you believe me if I told you she was the one who initiated the sex?" he snapped.

"Noah, I swear to god…"

"No!" He was standing now. "Someone needs to listen to me. Everyone is acting like Lauren is some..some victim and she isn't. We were both there, we both did this. And I'm tired…" He grabbed the edge of the table, and flipped it so hard that the bowl of fruit that had been sitting in the middle smashed against the adjacent wall. A hot tear streaked down his cheek, leaving a dirty trail behind it. "Tired of everyone blaming this all on me. I DIDN'T DO IT! I know what I did wasn't cool. But I wasn't alone. And I never put that tape on the Internet."

He hadn't realized he had been shouting until he saw his mother's reaction. She looked…afraid.

Of him.

He could never hurt his mother. Not physically anyway. But she was looking at him like he could and the feeling that tore through him was violent enough to cause every nerve in his body to start quaking, and convulsing.

His limbs shook so hard that he could barely stand. It took he and his mother easing him down onto the floor to keep him from passing out from the shock.

Though she was hesitant, his mom sat down next to him, and pulled his head to her chest. For the first time since he was a little boy, he let it rest there and he sobbed. "I wouldn't do this," was all he could manage as he stained her white blouse with tears, and snot, and all of the embarrassing byproducts of his pain. "Not to her. Not to you."

She stroked the side of his head, wrapping her other arm around him awkwardly. "Shh..shh, my boy. It's alright."

It was then – with the words "my boy" – that Puck knew she believed him. He wouldn't have to prove anything to her.

That he wasn't so alone.

* * *

><p><strong>Note:<strong> I didn't proof this so if it is full of mistakes, I apologize. I just wasn't in the mood. I also happen to think this chapter kind of sucks. Or, at the very least, I wanted it to be better than it is. I just didn't have the mojo in me, I guess. And I promise Puck and Lauren will interact again in the next chapter. I just felt like this kind of stuff was somehow relevant.


	4. Hanging By A Moment

**Redemption**

Chapter 4: Hanging by a Moment

She'd never felt this way before.

She had come close a few times. Once, when she was 8 and her Pappou died. Then again when she had to spend the entire summer between 7th and 8th grade in the house because she had broken her leg riding her dirt bike.

Those times, though, it had eventually passed. She had cried a lot, and was sad for awhile, but then she eventually rebounded from it.

This time, though, it was sticking.

She had spent the better part of the two weeks since her parents' meeting with Figgins walking around, flip flopping between feeling completely drained or feeling nothing at all. Normally, she'd be indignant – how dare one of those show choir geeks (because who else could it be) cross her like, and who did Puckerman think he was, treating her like she wasn't the hottest bitch who'd ever given him the time of day. She would've rolled her eyes at, and verbally maimed, anyone who said anything nasty to her. People were stupid and should be treated as such: that was Lauren's philosophy.

But she hadn't said much of anything to anyone. Even when Santana cracked on her in Glee club, saying whatever it was she said – Lauren hadn't really been listening, but she recognized Santana's bitchy, "Oh snap! I got you!" tone – Lauren just kind of stared at her blankly. When her teachers called on her, she just shrugged her shoulders, and ignored the looks of concern they directed at her. When Mr. Schuester had offered her a lead part in a song Glee club was trying out for Regionals, she'd simply walked out of the room.

At first, she really couldn't understand it. It wasn't like her to be one of those girls who let other people make them feel bad. Then she realized it wasn't other people. She was the reason she felt this bad.

Even if she wanted to blame Puckerman for not telling her about the camera, she didn't – and part of her couldn't, but that was an entirely separate issue. Not that she would tell him that, because she wanted him to feel as low as she did, but she knew the truth. She had always been independent. Her choices, bad or good, were her own. This one – this mistake – was squarely on her.

She couldn't trust herself not to be a complete moron anymore, which made her feel like one of those stupid people she despised.

Puck had watched her mope around school like this, which wasn't her at all, and it made him fucking miserable to see her that way.

It had been decided by his mother and her parents that the two of them shouldn't be involved with each other. No dating, no hanging out. They weren't even allowed to talk at school.

He had agreed to leave her alone, but had planned to blow them all off once they weren't around. Then he saw Lauren, and the way she looked at him – the one she had decided to – and realized that she wasn't going to fight their parents with him. She wanted nothing to do with him.

Still, he had to talk to her. Tell her…something. Anything, really. Because the only other option was to do nothing. And the whole lying down and dying quietly routine wasn't his style.

He had seen her go into the gym after school one Wednesday afternoon, and he knew she was there for wrestling practice. When peeked in the window, he saw her moving from the bleachers to the girls' locker room and knew this was the only chance he'd get.

He hadn't been in there awhile, but he knew his way around pretty well and didn't have to go very far back to find her. She was sitting on the bench between the third row of lockers, still in the clothes she'd worn to school. He hadn't really noticed it when he'd seen her in the gym, but he knew that he hadn't given her enough time to change out of her uniform.

"Since when do you sit in the stands instead of crushing dudes in practice?" he asked when he realized that's what she had done.

Her head shot up so fast that she could have snapped her own neck. "You shouldn't be in here. Or talking to me."

"You shouldn't be talking to me either, but you are."

"Only to tell you to go away," she said pointedly.

_Not gonna happen_, he thought. He had her there, and he wasn't going to let her push him around this time.

"Look," he said as he sat down next to her, "I know you're still pissed off about the camera thing, and the Internet thing but…"

"Seriously, go," she snapped, not wanting to deal with his explanations or apologies. "It's bad enough that my parents don't trust me. I don't want to have to lie to them by saying I didn't talk to you when I did."

"How will they know we talked? They think you hate me, so why would they even ask?"

She shook her head. "Half truths and leaving out facts. That's how we got here in the first place, Puckerman."

He had known she was going to be harder to get to than his mom was, but hearing her say that, and having her shoot him down this way, made him feel like a Grade A jackass. Like everything that everyone was thinking, what she was thinking, wasn't totally off base. "I know I've done a lot of crappy things, to a lot of people. I've hooked up with my best friend's girlfriends. I've slushied pretty much everyone in Glee club at some point. I locked Artie in a porta potty last year. What do they call that, when it comes back around to bite you in the ass like that?"

"Karma," she offered flatly.

"Yeah that." He turned on the bench, and fixed his eyes on hers. It was intimidating, being on her level like this. He didn't know how she'd react. Not only could she just reach across and slug him with enough force to land him on the floor, but she could also laugh right in his face. Or look away, like he wasn't even there, which was way worse. He would have no way of avoiding any of it. He would just have to take it, however it came. "But all that stuff was before I had things that mattered to me." He paused, looking over at her. Her face looked blank, but he saw…something,.. "I don't why, but, you make me a better guy. And I want to fix things because it sucks when you're not around."

The way he was looking at her made her insides ache in the most obnoxious way – like when you miss someone and no amount of anything can fill that emptiness – and she had to turn away so he could not see her fighting hard against the tears now pooling in the corners of her eyes. "I guess you should have thought about how much it would suck before you lied to me, then," she said, trying to steady her voice. She may have been turning into an absolute sucker when it came to him, but she wasn't weak, and she sure as hell wasn't going to show it.

He ran his hand over the side of his head, feeling frustrated but also kind of hopeful. She wasn't accusing him of putting the tape on the 'net anymore. Or, at least, she hadn't said anything about that, which he was going to take as a good sign. Maybe she was only mad at him for the thing he actually did. "I know you think I'm a jerk right now, but I am going prove you wrong. So just…don't give up on me."

She wasn't about to give him an inch. She also wasn't about to get up, and walk out on him either. "Do what you have to do," she said quietly, even though she wanted to tell him she probably wasn't capable of giving up on him.

That was all he needed; to believe she still hanging on like he was.

As he stood up and looked down at her, he made a split second decision. This one was definitely going to end in him losing a ball but…he didn't care. He was tired of seeing her so damn sad. He moved quickly, leaning in, but let his lips linger against her temple. "Whatever's making you so sad," he whispered against her skin, "know that you're better than that."

He was out of sight before she could react.

She had never depended on anyone, especially no boy, to make her feel better. But tough bitch or not, it was nice to here someone else see in her what she once saw in herself. Even if it was the person who'd helped her get into this funk.

_Officially stupid_,she thought as she pulled her gym bag over her shoulder.

* * *

><p><strong>Note:<strong> Just a small, incredibly irrelevant note about Lauren's heritage. Pappou, from what I understand, is Greek for grandfather. If I spelled it wrong, my mistake. I found about 5 different spellings and just used the most phonetically simple one. And I made her at least partly Greek simply because when I dug around on the Internet, the only "Zizes" I could find had Greek roots. So there you have that. Again, not really relevant to the story in anyway, but I thought since we pretty much know all about Puck and his Judaism, it would be nice for Lauren to have a bit of personal heritage as well.


	5. QUAD To The Rescue

**Note:** So, this is definitely light on the Luck/Pizes, and on the Lauren, but heavy on the QUAD (Puck/Sam/Artie/Mike). What can I say? This chapter had to be done and I figured it would be more interesting this way.

Also, I really _never_ do this, but I am dedicating this chapter. To Becca, my co-mod on the Mark Salling board on FanForum. Because no one loves the QUAD boys more than she does. And because she's been super supportive of me writing this fic. Not to mention she's fabulous and helps to make our little fail!board epic. Hope you enjoy it, sweetie. :)

* * *

><p><strong>Redemption<strong>

Chapter 5: Quad to the Rescue

So he wasn't Sherlock Holmes, and he'd had to Google process of elimination just to be sure what it was. But he was still going to keep his word and figure out who had put his sexcapades out there for the world to see…and possibly beat the shit out of whoever it was, depending on his mood. Even if it was one of the girls, which seemed more and more likely.

He knew it had to be someone from the party, since he was pretty sure some pervy stranger didn't waltz into Rachel's house and decide to post some random video footage online. Especially when her dad's had that sick flat screen with surround sound in their den.

Artie was out, obviously, since Artie was Puck's bro, a lieutenant to his ambadassadorship, and one of the few people who'd ever given a damn about him. If anything, Artie was like that angel that sits on people's shoulders, telling them to do the right thing. He trusted Artie, and knew Artie wouldn't do something that would hurt a friend.

Sam and Mike got passes too. Sam saying he had his back was enough proof for Puck, and Mike had always been a cool guy. He was probably too wrapped up in his own sex life with Tina to really give shit about Puck's anyway. Tina had been pretty bitchy to him a couple of times in the last year, and it would've put her on his list if she hadn't been the only girl in glee club who made any effort to be friends with Lauren.

Brittany was out because…well, she still hadn't figured out how to turn on a computer. And he still didn't think Santana would have been able to contain herself if this were her handy work. She'd have taken out a fucking neon billboard off the highway if it was her.

As much as Mercedes pretended she hated his guts, what she'd said to him when they kind of dated, about not liking himself or whatever, made him believe she wouldn't do this.

Kurt probably wouldn't have bothered either since the only thing Kurt found offensive about Puck was the way he dressed. And that kid, Blaine, who Kurt was kind of dating didn't even know Puck.

The only dude at that party who ever really had a problem with Puck was…Finn.

_How messed up would that be_, Puck thought as he sat in the back row of Glee club – which he noticed Lauren hadn't been to since he kissed her in the locker room the week before – watching Finn stare at Quinn.

He knew he deserved the face pummeling that Finn had given him last year …even though he'd have kicked Finn's shit all over the choir room if Finn hadn't sucker punched him. And he probably deserved Finn hating him for a year. But that kind of stuff had a time limit, and time for payback had come and gone the minute that Finn got the girl – or girls, by the looks of it – and got put up on some glee club pedestal.

He had macked on Finn's girls. He didn't ruin his life.

And Lauren really hadn't done anything to Finn.

But there he was, at the top of the list. And he wasn't there alone.

"Puck?"

When he heard is name, he slowly rolled his head upwards. Three faces were looking back at him, which was nothing new. He was getting use to all eyes being on him. Good news this time was that these faces were friendly. "Yeah?"

It had been Artie doing the talking. "Sam told us he talked to you a few weeks ago. We," he motioned to Sam, Mike, and himself, "just wanted you to know we were all here to help if you need."

Puck nodded. "Thanks, dude. But I don't know what I'm gonna do yet."

"That's what the help is for, yo," said Artie.

Puck cocked an eyebrow. Was that…a smirk he saw on Artie's face? That kid _had_ been hanging out with him too long. "You got a plan?"

"Not a plan, really," Sam piped in. "But we figured we could tell you what we know."

And they did. They rattled off where they had been during the party, and where their girls had been. Tina was solidly off the list when Puck found out that she and Mike were having fun of their own in Rachel's dads' bathroom. Sam and Santana, same story, different place. As Puck listened, it made him a little sick, and a little pissed, to realize that the way he'd worked it out in his head was turning out to be right.

"So, really comes down to Rachel, Quinn, Mercedes, and Finn," said Sam after the stories were told.

"Mercedes left with Kurt and Blaine after that little concert Blaine and Rachel gave," Artie offered.

"I don't think it was Rachel," Puck added. They all looked at him, waiting for some kind of explanation. "Okay, fine, Rachel was kind of a trip, and she rambles on and on about stuff no one really cares about most of the time. But…I dunno, she's kind of my friend. And she probably would have gone on some tirade about how gross I am for doing it in her bed and using her camera to tape it by now."

None of them said anything. He could tell they still weren't buying his logic. And why would they? None of them knew Rachel like he did, and none of them really liked her. Too, making out with him was part of the reason Finn dumped her, which was why she was all heartbroken. She had the reasons to want revenge but…he just knew she didn't do it.

Mike opened his mouth but snapped it shut again pretty quick, making Puck ask, "What?"

"I just…we're sure that Lauren didn't do it?"

It was like a jolt to his chest, like someone had stabbed him with an adrenaline shot, Pulp Fiction style. Puck practically flew out of his chair, and was in Mike's face before Sam had a chance to get between them. "What're you saying, man?"

Mike, who never really said much, looked like he'd just stepped in a hornet's nest. "I..well, she's in the AV club and…she seems to like attention with that number she did in here. I don't think I'm completely wrong for asking."

Puck's fists were clenched, his face was turning red. "I didn't accuse your girlfriend, dude, so back up off…." he almost said, "mine," the truth that she wasn't making some unknown part of him ache, "Have you seen her face? The way she walks around here all sad, like someone killed her dog? Does she look like she's loving the attention to you?"

Artie rolled up beside them, because squeezing between them was impossible. "Be cool, guys." He looked up at Puck, and Puck knew he was about to say one of those "shoulder angel" things that he would probably hate. "He's not the enemy, since he obviously didn't do it. Let's focus on who did.

The air was still pretty tense, and Puck could see Mike's discomfort written all over his face. Puck didn't care though. He just wanted to get to the bottom of this mess, so he took a step back and crossed his arms in front of himself. "What do we do?" he said, looking around.

"I think I should talk to Finn," said Artie. "He trusts me the most of everyone here. And I'll have Mike set it up like he's going to help him with his dancing for Regionals, and I'm just tagging along, so it doesn't seem like I'm interrogating him." He looked at Sam. "I think Quinn would talk to you."

"Dude, I just dumped her because she cheated on me," Sam said, an edge of to his voice.

"Do you want to help or not?" barked Puck. "If not, I'll talk to her myself."

Sam looked at Mike out of the corner of his eye, probably with a new understanding of what he was feeling. "Not a good idea. She's still not your biggest fan."

Puck snorted, rolling his eyes. He had gotten over Quinn awhile ago, mostly because they really had nothing in common. She never wanted to talk about Beth, which he kind of got, but she never let him talk about her either. To her, everything he said and did was wrong. She wanted Prince Charming, and that wasn't him. He didn't hold a grudge, but apparently she did. "Whatever. If you think it's better that you do it, go for it. She'd think it was weird I was talking to her anyway."

"Good. So that just leaves Rachel," Artie said. Puck shot him a confused look. "I know you don't think she did it, but maybe you should ask her, just in case. If she did, it was probably an accident and getting it off her chest, to you, will make her feel better."

Puck just nodded. He didn't like it but he just wanted to get one with it.

"Alright, then. We'll put this plan into action, and keep in touch so that when someone knows something, the rest of us do."

Puck wasn't about to say anything – because he wanted to keep at least some of his badass cred – but he felt kind of…touched… that they were doing this for him. He'd never had brothers, so he didn't know what that was like, but he figured this was pretty damn close. And it felt good.


	6. Ringing In Your Ears

**Redemption**

Chapter 6: Ringing in Your Ears

The most important thing Lauren had learned through her weeks of silence? It was so much easier to hear stuff she wasn't meant to.

And it was much easier to learn the truth.

She'd been trudging passed the stairwell that led to her church's media room. Normally, she wasn't alone when she wandered this particular hall after service on Sundays. But her youth group friends had been pretty scarce lately. To them, sex tapes weren't okay. "Everything but the…" sex – which included stuff she hadn't even heard of, much less tried – at retreats, overnight lock-ins, and summer camp with anyone in the group? Sure. But accidently recording sex with just one person, who you happened to care about? Forever branded a "sinner for life." Or at least until you made some gushy, heartfelt apology to the entire group, which she wasn't going to do because, depressed or not, she didn't owe anyone anything, or someone else did something worse.

It was voices – she kind of recognized them but couldn't actually put them to faces – that stopped her. Since she was already way ahead in the seven deadly sins department, what was overhearing a private conversation really going to do? Besides, they were talking loudly enough for anyone to hear, so it wasn't really eavesdropping.

"…drop it, okay? It was weeks ago, and no one even talks about it anymore." A girl's voice. Low and little raspy but still feminine. She sounded vicious right then, but Lauren thought she was probably much sweeter normally. Most people were when they weren't pushed into a corner, like this girl sounded.

"What if I said you owed me the truth about this since you lied to my face about kissing Finn behind my back?"

_Kissing Finn? Was that the blond kid…_ Lauren couldn't think of his name. Only that Puckerman had called him La BALMba behind his back once and she'd thought it was one of his more clever digs at the time. Now…she just wanted someone to punch her in the head for thinking about him.

"_You_ broke up with me. I don't _owe_ you anything."

Of course. Quinn Fabray. The girl that Puckeman had once loved.

That fact had never bothered Lauren since "loved" was past tense, and he had spent all of his time in the months before the tape wooing her, and no one else. So her interest in Quinn had been non-existent until this moment. But secrets and scandals that weren't about her? Lauren was all about that.

"Fine. Don't tell me. I'll just tell everyone you did it. And they'll believe me since I'm not the one who did something like this before then lied about it, just like you are now."

Silence.

For a second, Lauren felt a little bad for miss queen bee. Quinn may not have been the nicest girl, or even a nice girl, but Lauren knew what it felt like to be trashed by everyone, and how easily people believed gossip – she'd heard tons of rumors about herself in the last few weeks, her favorite being that she had a whole collection of sex tapes that she sold on triple x, chubby chaser websites for cash. And it hurt to have it all start with a boy who was supposed to care. At least it had when she thought Puckerman had put the tape on…

_Wait…did Quinn say "it" was weeks ago? That would've been right around the time…_

Suddenly, the silence felt like it was strangling her and Lauren tried to swallow the dry, softball sized lump in her throat.

"You…you wouldn't do that." This sounded feeble.

Quinn wasn't just cornered now. She was caught and marked for dead.

"I wouldn't have to. I'd only have to tell one person. Puckerman. He'd run with it on his own."

Lauren's knees almost gave out – like that time her wrestling arch nemesis, Joey McGuiness,, had taken her down with a quick dive and grab. She hadn't seen that coming either.

It had been Quinn. She'd put the tape online.

Lauren didn't even need to hear her say so. Blond kid was right. It was easy to convince people of anything. Still, she listened.

"Don't do that. Please." Quinn was practically begging now, and sounded like she could be crying.

"Why would you do this? You're not vindictive. Mean sometimes but no more than most people. And you told me once you know what it feels like to be an outcast. Why would you do that to someone else?"

"He deserved it!" Quinn was spitting venom now. "He ruined everything! I was happy until the day he knocked me up." Her voice wavered on the last words, and her tone had tapered off a bit. "I had to give up my whole life. My family. Finn. Cheerios. What did he give up? No one called him a whore or a beached whale. He had me living in his house, his mother making me miserable, while he kept sleep around. And no one said anything since he's Puck and they expected it." There was a shoveling sound, like someone was moving around. "I was drunk and furious and…I wanted him to know how bad it all felt."

"It wasn't just him, though. You did all that to Lauren too."

Lauren had to stomp away then since her soft spot for Quinn's suffering had officially exited stage left. And with it went her depression for the moment. Instead, she was raging on the inside. The punch she was willing to take to her own head moments ago was now something she'd have liked to see laid on Quinn. And she wanted to be the one to do it.

What she wanted more than that, though, was to do exactly what blond kid…_what was his fucking name, for fuck's sake_… had threatened. She wanted to run to Puckerman, and tell him everything. He would flip his shit, that she knew, and she'd have loved to see him go full postal on that twiggy little bitch in school the next day.

Still, when she pulled up in front of his house, all she could do was sit there.

"What am I doing here?" she said to no one.

She felt a little like she was a tattle tale, or one of those particularly pathetic girls who cried to their boyfriends whenever someone looked at them the wrong way. The only difference was…Puck wasn't her boyfriend anymore. Even if he were, she felt a little sick for wanting him to want to avenge her or something.

_Maybe not though._

It was part of it. She couldn't deny that. But the bigger part of her wanted to tell someone she had trusted implicitly about what she'd just heard. She hadn't had a real friend for a long time before she met Puck and, at the time, it didn't have to be him. It could have been anyone, really. He had worked hard to make her believe he had her back, though, and she hadn't realized how important something like that was, and how much she needed and wanted it, until it was gone.

More than needing him to fix this for her, she just wanted him there to listen. Listen to her like she had listened to him.

Her eyes burned, and she rubbed them furiously. She wasn't going to cry over this, over him, again.

A loud rapping drew her reddened eyes to the passenger side of her car, and a blurry scowl with a mohawk attached. She rolled the window down, and heard him say, "You alright, babe?"

Babe. What a god awful word that was, she thought. Every feminist in the history of the world rolled over in her grave every time Lauren let him call her that. And yet, it was strangely comforting to hear him say it. Like he could be all she missed. Like he actually cared.

"No," she said simply.

He looked over his shoulder, then back at her. "Look, if my mom sees us out here, she's going to have our rabbi cut the whole thing off this time. But meet me at the usual place, in like 25 minutes. I'll just tell her I'm meeting up with Artie or something."

Forty five minutes later, they were both sitting in her car which was parked at the back of Lawn Park Cemetery. Since it was on the far side of Lima Heights, no one would think to look for them there. And, they'd come to the conclusion months ago that no one would think them quite so screwed up to be making out in a cemetery. That's why it was the perfect "usual place."

Now, though, mauling Puck's face was the last thing on Lauren's mind. And it was probably the last thing on his too, since she'd just recounted the whole conversation between Quinn and Sam – Puck had told her his name. His eyes had gone from empty to angry in the time it took her to get it all out. When she finished, he sat perfectly still for a minute before slamming his fist so hard against the center console that she thought he broke both.

"Whoa, killer. My car!"

"I really can't believe this shit!"

"Well believe it before you bust up my car."

His eyes shifted to her, almost as if he was trying to repress rolling them. "I pretty much just accused Rachel of doing it, even though I knew she didn't. She even cried a little, and begged me to believe her which so isn't Rachel. I felt like such a dick."

Lauren was trying not to be annoyed that he was feeling all sorry for poor, poor Rachel. "Why'd you ask her if you thought she didn't do it?"

"Because the boys and I used our crazy Dick Tracy skills to figure out who most likely did it. Then Mike and Artie talked to Finn, I took Rachel, and it was Sam's job to talk to Quinn." He turned his whole body towards her. "I told you, Zizes. I was going to figure this out. And I always make good on my promises."

She glared at him, not exactly sure why. "I found it out on my own, remember? And it was Sam, and a bunch of my church friends hating me, that made that happen."

The anger in his face flared again, his pupils shrinking to pin points and she could hear his teeth grinding to the point of cracking one. "Seriously! I'm the one who set the whole thing up. Or, well, Artie did but it was only because _I_ got their help!"

"You wouldn't have needed it if you had just told me the truth in the first place!" she yelled.

"We're back to this again?"

"Back to it? We never left it, jackass. It's still the worst part of the whole situation. I don't care what all those idiots at school think of me. But they're not my friends. They're not suppose to care about me. You were! And you took that and did the worst possible thing you could do. You lied!"

There they were again. The damn tears. She didn't want him to see them more than she didn't want to cry them. But she couldn't take them back, just like she couldn't take her words back.

Telling him exactly what he'd done wrong wasn't something she'd wanted to do because as soon as she did it, the chance that he would be able to start apologizing was real. So was the chance that he wouldn't, which scared her most. Maybe he had spent all the time he was willing to trying to get her before he had anything to be sorry for. Maybe he just wasn't into it anymore.

She also hadn't wanted him to know how hurt she was because… she never wanted anyone to know that. There was a reason people thought they couldn't get to her. She had made herself invincible by believing that she was as good as, and sometimes better than, everyone else. That was the trick to loving herself, and not caring.

It was about self-respect. And the small amount she had left was pounding hard against her eardrums, letting her know that it wasn't okay to just accept him back in. He didn't get off that easily, even if she was scared that he would bow out.

Puck stared out the front windshield. He knew that it was only a few little words. "I'm so sorry." And he had said it once before, right after the tape had leaked. But "sorries" were for pussies, and he was tired of feeling like chicks were yanking him around by his dick.

Still, when he looked at her, and thought about how everything on that tape had felt (and how much he wanted to feel all that again), all the tough guy, badass talk didn't seem important.

The only reason he had done all this stuff had been for her. So why waste it? What was one more "sorry," no matter how humiliating it was?

"I…I'm sorry, okay? So sorry." When she said nothing, he decided he might as well put it all out there since he already sounded like tool. "More sorry than the time I lowered my little sister out of the second story window of our house in a laundry basket just 'cus. Or any of the times I did something that my mom says turned her hair grey. More sorry than all those times I slushied geeks or threw them in the dumpster. More sorry than the time I gave my kid up." He paused. "I can't take any of that stuff back either. All I can do is be sorry and, ya know, not be such a screw up from now on."

Lauren couldn't respond at first. She'd already cried once in front of him today. She wasn't about to be a blubbering fool once again. "It's not going to be that easy," she said, her voice unusually quiet. So quiet, that he almost thought it was someone other than her talking to him.

"When has anything with you ever been easy." He was kind of joking, but sounded serious at the same time. "I just don't want to look like a chump."

She inhaled deeply, almost like she was tired. "You won't."

He nodded. "Then I'm in."

"So am I," she said, finally.


	7. Justice

**Redemption**

Chapter 7: Justice

Hitting girls? Definitely wrong.

But when he watched Quinn practically floating down the hall, pretending to hang onto Finn's every word – Puck recognized that blank look from the all the times he'd tried to explain the epic that was Super Mario Brothers to her – it took every bit of strength Puck had not to lunge at her. He wished Lauren was there to do it for him. Girls hitting other girls? Totally fine. And totally hot in Lauren's case. Watching her kick some ass was a total turn on.

_Don't get ahead of yourself, _he thought. Lauren was just this side of liking him again, and he knew there was a long way to go before he got them back to where they were before. If he could, anyway. The thought of her not being able to get past this only made him rage more, and he continued to glare murderously at Quinn.

Sam came up next to him, following his line of sight. "You alright?" he asked.

"No," Puck growled, slamming his locker door with a loud clang. "Look at her! She's bucking for prom queen and walking around like she didn't fuck up someone's life."

Sam was quiet, and Puck knew why. When he'd told Puck what Quinn had said, Sam had gone on and on about how sorry she seemed and how she _had_ gone through a lot and it _was_ partly because of Puck. It was pretty obvious that Sam still had a serious soft spot for Quinn, even though she'd basically Buffied his sweet, little Eagle Scout heart. And even though listening to him had been incredibly annoying, Puck gave Sam a lot of credit for actually telling him at all.

"Maybe you should tell someone, like Mr. Schue, instead of getting all worked up and doing something stupid," Sam suggested.

Puck shot him a sideways glance. He hated it when Sam tried to reason with him. He hated it more when it kind of made sense. "Fine, whatever. But if he doesn't do anything, I'm handling it my way."

* * *

><p>Lauren had passed by Mr. Schue's office earlier, but hadn't gone in when she'd seen Puck and Sam sitting in there talking to him. She wasn't going to read too much into it, but something had fluttered in her chest a bit at the thought of Puck taking care of business, and doing something about this whole mess.<p>

Now, sitting in glee club, she wondered what had been said, and what Mr. Schue was going to do about it.

She looked down at the back of Quinn's head. It was almost too tempting. All Lauren had to do was give her perfect blond hair a yank, or roughly kick the back of her chair so that she would fall forward, smacking her perfectly pretty face hard against the floor. When Quinn laughed, the sound of it made Lauren's whole body tense and she had to scoot her chair back, putting Quinn out of her reach.

She hated that this was getting the best of her, that something so stupid was making her this petty. Normally, she was above it, and she'd spent the last 24 hours trying to reason with her rage, reminding herself that she hadn't been Quinn's intended target. But the fact was that Quinn had done this to her too. And no matter how angry Quinn had been at Puck – an emotion that Lauren understood better than most – Lauren hadn't done anything to deserve what she got.

It just had to be dealt with. And by the look on Mr. Schue's face when he came into the room, it was about to be.

"Guys, I have some…personal business that I need to take care of so I am calling practice off today. Feel free to stay if you like, but, like I said, I have to go take care of some things."

He was subtle, barely touching Quinn as he stopped her before she exited the room. Lauren saw it, but everyone else was too busy shuffling around, and chatting to notice. After he said something to Quinn in hushed voice, he looked up at Lauren, and waved for her to follow him. Or, at least, that's what she figured he meant.

Lauren glanced quickly at Puck, who was sitting three seats over. Smart move on his part, she thought. Giving him another chance was one thing. But him being all up in her space all the time would have just been frustrating. Still, she kind of wanted him to be there when whatever was going down went down. She could handle herself, no doubt about that, but – and she would never say so out loud, or give him the satisfaction of knowing – it was just a lot easier having him back her.

Luckily for her, Puck tailed her, Quinn, and Mr. Schue to his office, and leaned against the file cabinet on the wall nearest Lauren.

From behind his desk, Mr. Schue looked…well, he looked like Lauren hadn't seen him look before. Normally he was obnoxiously upbeat. She'd seen him angry once or twice, like in the green room at Sectionals. Now, though, he looked like one of those old timey school marms or Mrs. Pearson, McKinley's crankiest librarian. Like he was sick of dealing with kids, especially the ones who just didn't know how to behave.

"I'm going to cut to the chase," he said, looking directly at Quinn. "Did you put the tape that Puck and Lauren made online?"

Quinn stared at him fiercely, never blinking once. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh c'mon!" Puck shouted. "Sam heard you say it, and Lauren heard you tell him!

"Puck," said Mr. Schue, looking at Lauren. "Tell me what you heard Quinn say."

Lauren's eyes flicked in Quinn's direction. She was in no mood to be fair, but was willing to try if Quinn looked even a little bit sorry. Quinn didn't even flinch, though, which just pissed Lauren off more than she already was. "I heard her tell Sam that putting the tape online was Puckerman's payback for knocking her up. That he deserved to feel bad like she had, and something about being drunk and angry when she did it. What I didn't hear her say was what the fuck I ever did to her that made take her little temper tantrum out on me."

Mr. Schue lifted an eyebrow at Lauren, probably objecting to her f-bomb, but she didn't care. She hadn't gone after Quinn in the hallways, or in front of glee club. She was going to say what she wanted to now. "So what did I do to you, princess? Hmm? I stole your boyfriend, is that it? Because, last I checked? You didn't want him. Or was it just the pretty, popular cheerleader putting the big girl in her place? I'm really curious, so tell me." She turned squarely, in her chair, gripping the arm so hard she could have snapped it in half. "C'mon, Fabray, don't be shy now. Tell me what I did to you! Tell me why you did this!" Lauren jumped up, leaned over, and practically screamed in Quinn's face. "JUST TELL ME!

Puck grabbed Lauren by the elbow, pulling her back as Quinn rose to her feet too, tears streaking like violent lightening through a layer of foundation and blush. "I didn't think about you, OKAY? Is that what you want to hear? I didn't think about you just like nobody thought about me when they called me names in the hall or ignored me!" She threw a finger harshly in Puck's direction. "He sure didn't think of me when he didn't use protection! I was…just…ANGRY! Alright? Stupid and angry!"

Mr. Schue was around his desk now, putting himself in between the girls before they could exchange blows.

"That doesn't make it okay! Do you know what you've done?" Now tears started to pool in the corner's of Lauren's eyes. "My parents have a hard time even looking at me now! And my little brother's are getting teased at school because of this! They've had to quit their after school stuff, and they might have to be homeschooled! When you didn't think about me, you didn't think about any of them either."

Quinn had no response, except to collapse back into her chair, her tiny body shaking.

Lauren reeled back too, straight into Puck's arms. For a split second, she forgot she what was happening between them and she buried her face in his shoulder, letting him cradle her.

"Guys, everyone just needs to calm down," Mr Schue said, a little lamely, like even he knew that he was a little late with that. "Let's just talk about what's going to happen now."

Snapping back to her senses, Lauren practically pushed Puck away as she made her way back to her chair and waited for Schue to dole out the final verdict. She didn't much care if Quinn got in any kind of trouble, since the damage had already been done. Lauren just wanted it all to be over. Or, as over as it could be.

Mr. Schue sat on the front edge of his desk, arms crossed in front of him. "Obviously, I have to take this to Principal Figgins, which will probably result in him telling your mother, Quinn."

Quinn wiped her eyes, making the black smear under them worse. "Will I be suspended?"

"I'll talk to him so that doesn't happen and I will try to keep you in glee club too. But I doubt you'll be allowed to run for prom queen. And you are really going to have to convince him that you are sorry."

"That's if she _is_ sorry," Lauren scoffed. "I heard no apology come out of her mouth."

"Lauren…"

"No, she's right, Mr. Schuester," Quinn said. "I didn't say it. But I am now." She turned towards Lauren. "I'm sorry. For hurting you, and hurting people you care about. You don't have to believe me, but I mean it."

Even though she couldn't deny that Quinn had sounded, and looked, pretty sincere, Lauren didn't want to accept the apology. Like forgiveness was that easy. But she also didn't want to look like the jerk in the room. If she wanted to get past the petty she'd been suffering from, she had to suck it up. "Fine. You're sorry. I get it."

Mr. Schuester nodded. "I think it would be in your favor, Quinn, if you did something like volunteering to show that you truly are remorseful. Maybe do a Big Sister program, or work with a group that helps young girls with self-esteem. I'll see if maybe Miss Pilsbury can help you with that."

Quinn nodded. "Can I go then?"

"First, I want you all to agree that this stays between us."

"Please, Mr. Schue. If one person in glee club knows then everyone will," said Quinn.

"And half of the club knows already," said Puck. "Artie, Sam, and Mike were helping me with this."

"Can't you just tell them not to tell anyone?" asked Mr. Schue. "You all have gotten pretty good at keeping secrets in the last year."

Puck rolled his head around a bit. "Yeah, I guess. That's if they haven't told the girls yet."

"Let's just hope they haven't," he said with a sigh. "And I'll go speak to Principal Figgins right away."

He ushered them out of his office, Quinn taking an immediate right, probably too anxious to be in Lauren's vicinity any longer.

Puck stood for a moment, waiting for Lauren to say something. When she didn't, all he could think to offer was, "Pretty crazy."

"Yup," Lauren said, looking at him after Quinn had finally disappeared. "Thanks, I guess, for taking care of this. And for being in there. You didn't have to do it."

"Yeah. I kind of did. I was laying in bed last night, thinking about how none of this had ever happened if I hadn't been so stupid. If I had thought with my head for once and not my dick."

Lauren said nothing, because she really did not want to be thinking about his lower anatomy. Everything was difficult enough without that on her mind too.

"So, is stuff really still that bad with your family?" Puck asked.

"Watch it, Puckerman. Your concern is showing."

He rolled his eyes at her, not being able to stop himself. "Whatever, Zizes. You know I care about you. Even if you don't like me a whole lot right now."

And there it was. That thing about him that made her so damn…girly. So damn weak to him all the time. He was irresistible. And the worst part was, he knew it. But now…he wasn't riding on it. He was actually going to put the effort forth. It wasn't going to be like it was before, though. Nope. This time, it was going to be more because it had to be. And she couldn't help but smirk a little at the idea of how much better it would be this time around.

"Well, you just keep right on caring, and who knows? Maybe you'll change my mind about you. Doubt it. But anything is possible."

He grinned. "Walk you to your car?"

"Not yet." She began walking up the hallway, but turned back for just a moment. "But maybe someday soon."

That was more enough for him.


End file.
